The Political Consequences of Party System Change

This article engages one of the important gaps in the literature on party system effects: the consequences of party system change. We discuss how existing empirical approaches to party system change do not actually capture the changeability of patterns of party competition, which is the most direct understanding of the term "party system." We propose a measure that does exactly this: the index of fluidity. Applying this measure to countries in South East Asia, we show that party system change is associated with harmful effects, including lower foreign direct investment and deterioration of the rule of law.